After weeks of speculation, the Red Sox finally took a trip to visit with the top offensive free agent on the market: Carl Crawford. According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, top officials of the Red Sox organization flew to Houston to meet with Crawford and his representation over the past few days. The reports from the meeting appear to be positive, but as expected, Crawford will not come cheap. Without a doubt, Crawford is the top outfielder on the market right now. He is a 5-tool player with great speed, defensive range and tremendous skill in the batter’s box. The big question is, will the Sox open their wallets and give Crawford the type of deal that he demands?
It is likely that Crawford will demand a 6-year deal in the range of $15-$20 million per season. The price will certainly be steep and with a handful of other teams drooling at the thought of bringing in a stud like Crawford, the cost will only be driven up higher and higher. The key for the Sox is to put a strong offer on the table from the get-go and not wait for the race for Crawford to become a bidding war and we all know it will. The Sox are notoriously bad at raising their initial offer significantly, so a big start will raise the chances of bring Crawford to Boston.
In other big news, the Red Sox appear to have a meeting scheduled with Scott Boras over the next few days to discuss 2 of the other big names on the market: Adrian Beltre and Jayson Werth. As much as I can’t stand the concept of a super-agent like Boras, it makes the Sox job easier because they can kill 2 birds with 1 stone and get information on both players. If the Sox can bring back Beltre and sign either Crawford or Werth, their offense will be in great shape next season. They will have more balance than in the past and the loss of Victor Martinez will be radically less noticable.
Check back for more information as it becomes available. With the recent meetings, it appears likely the offers will begin to be placed on the table within a week or so and a decision will probably be made for all 3 of these players before Christmas.
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